An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

Language element 
 
Linguistic sub-discipline
discourse
discourse 
analysis
text
text 
linguistics
utterance
pragmatics
sentence meaning 
➝ semantics
clause
&
phrase structure 
➝ syntax
word/lexeme lexicology
morpheme morphology
sound/phoneme
phonology
letter/grapheme
graphology
(For an overview of all these dimensions, see McGregor, 2009; Jackson and 
Stockwell, in press; Mullany and Stockwell, in press.) You will have noticed that 
some of the chapters in the first part of this book cover several of these sub-
disciplines. Like second language acquisition and psycholinguistics in this part 
of the book, the sub-discipline of sociolinguistics is not confined to one of these 
levels; instead, it investigates different levels from a sociolinguistic perspective.
Although sociolinguistic variation occurs throughout the language system, 
sociolinguistic studies have focused on particular types of patterns, especially at 
the phonological level. Phonological variation is a useful level to study since it 
is easier to find an occurrence of a particular sound rather than a word, phrase 
or grammatical structure; also, phonological variation is often below the level of 
awareness of speakers and so is less affected by self-conscious alteration. However, 
sociolinguistic exploration has also been undertaken at the grammatical, lexical, 
discoursal and whole-language levels.
The Linguistic Variable
The main tool in sociolinguistics has been the concept of the ‘linguistic variable’. 
This is any single feature of language which could be realized by different choices. 
In the word farm, for example, some people do not pronounce the /r/ and some 
do, and there are also variations in the ways the /r/ can be pronounced. This 
is a linguistic variable which is strongly determined by geographical location:
non-/r/-pronouncers are likely to be from England, Wales, Australia, Massachusetts 
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147
Sociolinguistics
or the southern states of the USA. Furthermore, you could pronounce the /r/ as a 
sort of ‘tap’ against the back of the teeth (almost like a /d/), in which case you are 
likely to be from the Scottish Highlands or the west of Ireland.
The linguistic variable feature could be a sound, or a word, or a phrase, or a 
pattern of discourse and so on. For example, common words for round bread 
products include the lexical variants: bun, roll, cob, bap, barm, fadgie, stotty, cake, 
batch, loaf and no doubt many others. You might not even recognize some of 
these, but their use is determined by the social factor of geographical location. Do 
you park your car, rank it or file it? Do you buy sugar in a bag, or a sack, or a poke? 
Do you call someone or phone them up or ring them or give them a phone or give them 
a bell or give them a buzz? All of these will vary depending on where you live, and 
who you are talking to.
Phonological Variation
Although the linguistic variable can be from any level of the linguistic rank 
structure, it is variation in ‘accent’ that has provided the major focus of 
sociolinguistic studies so far. This is partly because observing and recording 
occurrences of individual sounds is very much easier than waiting around all 
day for a particular word, structure or discourse pattern to appear, or setting up 
a complicated and artificial test situation. Phonological variables also have the 
advantage that they are usually below the level of conscious awareness, so the 
recorded data can be relied on to be naturalistic.
People ordinarily talk of ‘broad’ or ‘strong’ accents and describe sounds as 
‘precise’ or ‘clipped’ or a ‘drawl’. However, in order to be able to describe accents 
systematically and precisely, sociolinguists use the International Phonetic 
Alphabet (IPA). This is a system of special letters, each one of which corresponds 
with a very particular sound. The full IPA covers every speech sound it is possible 
to make with the human mouth and throat (see Ball and Rahilly, 1999; Collins 
and Mees, 2008). Table 9.1 lists a selection of some symbols which you might find 
useful in sociolinguistics.
Grammatical Variation
Linguistic variables operating at a grammatical level have also been studied 
in sociolinguistics. For example, variations in the morphology of subject–verb 
agreement have been observed among the speech of British schoolchildren. The 
third person morpheme ‘-s’ (he goes, she knows) was used by some children for 
all verb agreements (I goes, I knows). It was noted that this non-standard pattern 
tended to be used with a greater frequency by boys than girls, and seemed to be a 
marker of group solidarity among the boys.
Centrality in the social group and speech community is often marked by the 
frequent use of certain realizations of linguistic variables. A major feature of 
African–American vernacular English (AAVE) is the non-use of the verb ‘to be’ 
in some contexts: he a big man, you the teacher. This is known as ‘zero copula’, 
and is the grammatical form to use when the verb could be contracted in general 
American English or standard British English: he’s a big man, you’re the teacher. By 
contrast, African–American vernacular has developed an invariant ‘be’ to signal 
habitual states: he be busy, she be running all day.
A common grammatical variable that AAVE shares with many other non-
standard grammars is the requirement for ‘negative concord’: that is, in a negated 

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148 An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
sentence, every element must be negated (Ain’t nobody going to help you, don’t 
nobody know me). This can be used for heavy emphasis (Ain’t no cat can’t get in no 
coop), where standard Englishes would need to use a few more phrases to achieve 
the same effect (There isn’t a single cat that can get into any coop at all) (see Labov, 
1972; Kochman, 1981).
Consonants
p – pip 
t
ʃ – church
b – bib 
d
 – judge
t – ten 
m – man
d – den 
n – man
k – cat 
ŋ – sing
g – get 
l – let
f 
– 
fish 
r 
– 
ride, parrot (‘trilled r’)
v – van 
ɾ 
– 
rubbish (Scots) (‘tapped r’)
θ – thigh 
ɹ 
– 
farm (US) (‘approximant r’)
ð – thy 
 
– 
‘very’ as ‘vehwy’
s – set 
w – wet
z – zen 
j – yet
ʃ – ship 
ʔ 
– 
bu’er, ‘butter pronounced without
 – leisure 
the /t/’ (glottal stop)
h – hen 
x – loch 
(Scots)
Vowels
(Monophthongs) (Diphthongs)
i – pit 
ai – bite, 
night
ε – pet 
əi – night (Scots, Canadian)
– pat 
εi – bait
ɒ – pot (British accent) 
ɔi – boy
Ÿ – putt (British), color (US) 
əυ – roe
υ – put 
aυ – house
ə – patter 
(British) 
υə – sewer, poor (British)
o 
– 
eau (French), low (N England) 
iə – ear 
(British)
ɑ – calm (Scouse), farm (Teesside) 
εə – air 
(British)
y 
– 
tu (French), school (Scouse)
ø – peu (French), boat (Geordie)
i: – bean
: – burn
ɑ: – barn
ɔ: – born
u: – boon
e: – 
bait (Northern England)